I found this 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix SE for sale on Facebook Marketplace recently, asking price is $1,500. I think that's for a 35-year-old Pontiac with 238,000-miles on it's ticker that's not at least a Formula Firebird. The body seems appears solid but the interior concerns me, good luck getting it redone. Looks like it has that "old man GM smell" too, you know, that delightful mixture of wet dog and cigarettes that many try to cover up with those Febreze fresheners on the AC vents. Poster of the ad claims the engine misfires but that doesn't sound too serious. Bad coil pack? Dead or dying injectors?
Although this car won Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" honors for 1988, history has been less than kind to what were known as either GM10's or W-bodies. However, and this may be the GM fan girl in me, they were more a victim of circumstance than being terrible cars. That's worth noting because back in the 1980's, GM did push out some clunkers.
These cars were different from what GM had been offering in their intermediate ranks in that they were front-wheel-drive. They weren't GM's foray into FWD, but up until that point, they were the first to (mostly) successfully combine styling elan with the powertrain configuration that would come to dominate the automobile industry. GM's first attempt at it, the infamous "X-body" Chevrolet Citation et al, had landed with a thud although their "A-body" brethren (Oldsmobile Cutlass Cierra) lingered on interminably through 1996. GM's first front drivers were the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado and 1967 Cadillac Eldorado but they were more an engineering novelty than a necessity.
The necessity that drove the migration to FWD was fuel-economy. The two oil shocks of the 1970's, and subsequent government mandated Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations left Detroit scrambling and the panacea was, obviously, lighter, smaller vehicles. Problem was, especially with GM's class-of-1978 downsized intermediates, their interiors were cramped. Sure, they may have been able to carry five to six passengers, but even just two adults sitting in the back seat of one on a road trip might have needed therapy for claustrophobia afterwards. The answer to that challenge was to cram the powertrain in front of the firewall thus freeing up cabin space. Say what we will about the GM "X-bodies" but their interiors were remarkably capacious compared to rear-wheel-drive cars of similar size.
But in addition to falling apart and being death traps, the X-bodies were homely affairs. Subsequent designs from GM and especially Chrysler weren't much better. Japanese imports, while vastly superior in terms of design and assembly, were sorry looking, appliance like affairs. To "Malaise Era" weary young me, front-wheel-drive, while obviously the way of the future, meant staid, boring cars. That changed wholesale when Ford introduced their "jelly bean" Taurus and Mercury Sable in 1986. While these cars were in development going back 1982, GM rolled them out a good two-model years later. The tip-of-the-spear? The 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix SE.
A then close friend of mine's parents bought one of these brand new for him in the spring 1988 and it knocked me sideways First, that his parents dropped $17,000 cash for their then 23-year-old son on it, but more importantly, by how much I didn't hate it. In other words, I wasn't ultimately disappointed by it the way its immediate predecessor did.
Styling aside, what I found most appealing about his car was its spacious interior. The dash layout? Not so much. Wow, what was with all the buttons? I still think it looks like it was inspired by some cheesy '80's video game. Good luck finding parts when it goes on the fritz too.
His GP had ginormous leg room in the back seat as well as the front and these dual rear buckets were a joy. While not adjustable, they were more comfortable than any back seats in a car had to be; especially in anything from General Motors. The Oldsmobile version of this car, the Cutlass had similar seats, the Buick Regal Gran Sport had similar ones available. The Chevrolet Lumina, which came out more than a year later, didn't either. Just as well as these buckets make this car a four-passenger only affair. Albeit, an airy, comfy one. Oh, look. A trunk pass through for ski's because everyone who drove one of these ski's, right?
I thought the styling somewhat goofy; it hasn't aged well either. The plus-side was, overall, the car didn't have that sorry, shrunken, too-small presence like its immediate predecessor did. Those cars always seemed smaller than there were whereas this one appears larger than it is. In reality, it is considerably shorter than what it replaced.
Driving dynamics wise, up until that time, that brand new 1988 Grand Prix was the "best" car I had ever driven. Granted, that's not saying much considering my most enthralling behind-the-wheel moments were in a 4.3-liter, 1976 Chevrolet Monza and a 1981 Pontiac Phoenix, but my friend's new '88 GP was unlike anything I had driven up until that time. There were no jiggles, quivers, shakes, squeaking and creaking. It felt "all-of-one". He let me drive it full-throttle over a railroad crossing and it felt as solid doing as a cast-iron girder on balloon tires would. If I did the same in my 1975 Chrysler Cordoba, it would do the Watusi and some trim piece would fly off as the suspension rebounded. For that matter, part of the suspension would fly off too. Steering was heavy but responsive, the ride fairly harsh. The car felt and looked modern but at the same time gimmicky.
I found his car seriously underpowered, but most cars back then were. It's little 2.8-liter V-6 made all of 130-horsepower and 160-foot pounds, hardly an engine fitting so much car. In the last days of semi-divisional autonomy, Pontiac spent the next ten-years experimenting with different engines in the GP until they finally got it right stuffing them with their (now legendary) 3800 V-6.
With all this going for it, what went wrong? Well, if you consider that GM only up until recently stopped making a car based on the DNA of our '88 here, it's "failure" is hard to quantify. Sure, from a product planning stand point, coming with personal luxury cars at first when the market was shifting away from them might have been a mistake, but GM introduced sedan versions eventually., gruesome as they were. Circumstantially, yes, Ford beat GM to the punch in the mid-size, front-drive segment and then there were the superbly executed imports - something Detroit didn't have to contend with back in the days when the personal luxury car reigned supreme in this country.
As for our Facebook Marketplace find here, sad that such a historically significant car could be had for so little. Ironic to some degree that a 1987 Grand Prix, even with a ratty, smelly interior would have an asking price five-times as much. Six times as much if it has a V-8. Perhaps more. Would be cool if someone does buy this and appreciates it for what it is. Or was.
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